Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Tuesday night line

* DOES A WILD BEAR WRITE ON TWITTER?: Big excitement in Conway last night when a bear roosted in a tree in a residential neighborhood and was eventually brought down by a tranquilizer dart. The Log Cabin Democrat reports on a Twitter account that sprang up in the name of the West Conway Bear.

* DUH: Gov. Mike Beebesays the state will either have to cut services or come up with new money because of an expected shortfall in Medicaid money. Do tell. The shortfall has been put at $250 to $400 million. I'm not clear if that's the total budget or simply the state's share, which, if it was, would make the shortfall as much as $1.2 billion. (CLARIFICATION: The state share — alone — is expected to run short from $250 to $400 million.) Any size would hurt. Beebe's not ready to utter the word tax just yet, suggesting state growth money could be directed to the cause. Sure. Since schools won't need it. And prisons won't. And employee health insurance won't cost any more. And the price of goods, services and utilities will go down. And the lions will lie down with the lambs. But Republicans like Tim Griffin have a ready solution. Throw as manby deadbeat grannies and children off Medicaid as possible and starve the taxpayer-financed welfare program. If people can't pay, it's their fault for not working harder and smarter. Screw 'em.

* SO YOU WANT TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?Judge withholds ruling on instantly awarding $1 million lottery winnings to woman holds ticket, picked up from a discard container. UPDATE: Channel 4 is reporting the judge has awarded the prize to a woman who claims she lost the winning ticket. Reporting I've seen doesn't say how she established original or continuing ownership.

* GAY AVERSION THERAPY: Richard Grenell has resigned after a brief stint as a spokesman for Mitt Romney. He said Romney had no problem with the fact that Grenell is openly gay. But anti-gay right wingers apparently had a big problem with it.

* ATTENTION NEWSPAPER WONKS: Jim Hopkins at the Gannett Blog provides the latest circulation figures for the nation's daily newspapers. Down on all reporting in Arkansas except for an increase in numbers for the Sunday Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Just under 4,000 people now are counted as paid subscribers to the newspaper's digital edition.

Speaking of Medicaid, bears

In September, the governor announced his intention to use tobacco settlement funds to substantially reduce the 3,000-person waiting list. It will still likely happen, but there's one new wrinkle now that didn't exist three months ago: President-elect Donald Trump. /more/

The selection of Tom Price as HHS secretary could signal that the Trump administration will dismantle the current healthcare safety net, both Medicaid and Medicare. /more/

GOP governors in states that expanded Medicaid want the coverage expansion to continue, but it's potentially on the chopping block with the election of Donald Trump. That includes Arkansas, where more than 300,000 Arkansans have coverage through the private option, the state's unique version of Medicaid expansion. /more/

Human Services Director Cindy Gillespie has provided the monthly report to Gov. Asa Hutchinson on enrollment in the Medicaid expansion program enabled by the federal Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. /more/

I'm shy of details save the essential one: An effort to expunge the vote on a rule that will cut Medicaid funding for mental health centers failed at the Legislative Council today. An extraordinary vote was needed and it wasn't there. /more/

The Human Services Department released this afternoon a monthly update by Director Cindy Gillespie on people insured thanks to applications for Obamacare's Medicaid expansion — about 317,000. /more/

Yet another federal judge has stopped a state order aimed at preventing federal money from going to Planned Parenthood because state officials don't like that the agency provides abortions (though not with federal money). /more/

The news of Arkansas's decision to bring in Dennis Smith, a former top Medicaid official for George W. Bush, included mention of the controversy that marked his tenure as the Medicaid boss for Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker. The important part was not a connection to a sexual scandal, but policy. /more/

Fidel Castro's death and Donald Trump both raise questions about the future of U.S.-Cuba relations. Also: Tom Cotton is apparently God.

An early open line.

Readers also liked…

This just in from state Education Department: Today, Commissioner Johnny Key reached an agreement with Dr. Dexter Suggs that resulted in Dr. Suggs’ immediate resignation as superintendent of the Little Rock School District.

We take a visit to the weekly hot check court in Sherwood District Court, the subject of a recent civil rights lawsuit filed by ACLU Arkansas and others, who say the system there results in a modern-day debtor's prison

Dexter Suggs may have cleared out his office before the workday began today, but he still has lingering legal matters as defendant in lawsuits against him and the state.

Most Shared

Next week a series of meetings on the use of technology to tackle global problems will be held in Little Rock by Club de Madrid — a coalition of more than 100 former democratic former presidents and prime ministers from around the world — and the P80 Group, a coalition of large public pension and sovereign wealth funds founded by Prince Charles to combat climate change. The conference will discuss deploying existing technologies to increase access to food, water, energy, clean environment, and medical care.

Plus, recipes from the Times staff.

Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) was on "Capitol View" on KARK, Channel 4, this morning, and among other things that will likely inspire you to yell at your computer screen, he said he expects someone in the legislature to file a bill to do ... something about changing the name of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.

So fed up was young Edgar Welch of Salisbury, N.C., that Hillary Clinton was getting away with running a child-sex ring that he grabbed a couple of guns last Sunday, drove 360 miles to the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C., where Clinton was supposed to be holding the kids as sex slaves, and fired his AR-15 into the floor to clear the joint of pizza cravers and conduct his own investigation of the pedophilia syndicate of the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state.

There is almost nothing real about "reality TV." All but the dullest viewers understand that the dramatic twists and turns on shows like "The Bachelor" or "Celebrity Apprentice" are scripted in advance. More or less like professional wrestling, Donald Trump's previous claim to fame.

Longtime KARK anchor Beth Ward died last night from complications of heart surgery, according to a report from THV11.

Rep. Kim Hendren this week filed a bill to prohibits the use of cell phones, pagers, beepers, digital media players, digital cameras, digital game consoles, and digital video or audio recorders for public students during the school day.